Profile
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Profile
—
Profile
—
Through installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings and cultural happenings, research-based artist Debra Scacco studies the ecological and cultural impacts of human-induced change. By blending academic research with personal narratives, her work highlights histories of land and water and the beings most affected, creating pathways and platforms for public engagement and action.
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Getty Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and many others. In 2023-24 she was awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Fellowship. She is the first civic-appointed artist-in-residence embedded in the City of Santa Monica’s Water and Waste divisions (2023-25), and was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument in conjunction with New Jersey City University (2012). Scacco is the co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program (2022-25), a groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, was co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles at California State University Dominguez Hills, and is featured in the corresponding PBS documentary Art & Science Collide. Scacco has held teaching positions at Pitzer College, Occidental College and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she invites students into a research and process-based approach to creating interdisciplinary work.
Contact
Studio (at) DebraScacco.com
Selected CV
—
b. 1976, Staten Island, NY.
Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Laboratory for the Future, City of Santa Monica Propeller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2025 UnMapping LA, Los Angeles Public Library (Central) Los Angeles, CA
2024 Misplaced Rain, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2022 Water Gold Soil, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2020 Compass Rose, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA
2020 City Upon a Hill, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Compass Rose, Oxy Arts (Occidental College), Los Angeles, CA
2018 The Narrows, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2015 The Letting Go, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2013 The Space Between, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Richiama, Ellis Island Museum, New York
2012 Birds of Passage, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Forever In Between, Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 The Journey is the Destination, California State University, Northridge, CA
2025 Future Flows, Marin MoCA, CA
2025 Foundations, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles CA
2024 C.O.L.A., Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Boil, Toil, Trouble, Art in Common Los Angeles, CA / Chicago. IL
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Unsettling California, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Suturo, Suturo, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Passing Time, Passing-Time.Org
2019 Lost in the Sky, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Archaeology of the Present, 411 Hewitt, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Santa Monica Airport
2018 Starless Midnight, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle UK
2018 Relative Space, Elevator Mondays, Los Angeles. Curated by Asha Bukojemsky
2018 AIR Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2017 All the Pretty Little Horses, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Transporter, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 VRBBQ, ICALA / Butcher Bird Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Office Hours, Main Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Via Negativa: The Transcendence of the unReal, South Bay Contemporary, Cerritos, CA
2015 Live Action – Repetition, Routine, Redundancy in the Moving Image, Mint Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014 Texas Contemporary, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
2014 Salon Zürcher, Zürcher Studio, New York
2014 Reds, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Pulse New York, The Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC
2013 Drawing Now Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
2013 APLA, Bonhams, Los Angeles, CA
2012 (text)ure, Patrick Heide Contemporary, London, UK
2012 Art Platform - Los Angeles, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument and
Ellis Island, in conjunction with New Jersey City University
2011 If these walls could talk: A conversation, Charlie James Gallery and Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles
2011 Outside the Lines, Royale Projects, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2010 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Salon No. 3, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2009 / 10 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London followed by national tour
2009 Salon No. 1, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Allotment, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK
2005 70 Years of Penguin Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2004 La Isla Teatro Odisséia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004 Ocularis, Galapagos Art Space, New York
2004 Carbonari, Florean Museum, Romania
2003 Signes de Nuit, Cinema Balzac, Paris
2003 Reduced, Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Viper Basel, Littmann Kulturprojekte, Switzerland
2003 Intervals, ATA, San Francisco, CA
2003 Covert, Whole Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2003 Other, The Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Mutiny, Oxo Tower, London, UK
2002 No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith, Central Space, London, UK
2001 15:17, Photofusion, London, UK
1999 The Zoetrope Project, Spitz Gallery, London, UK
1998 Self, October Gallery, London, UK
Performance
2023 Procession. Los Angeles State Historic Park. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Multipart, community-oriented performance and festival that invited Los Angeles residents to explore the history of the Los Angeles River and the ground beneath their feet. Produced by Fulcrum Arts.
2023 Atmospheric River. Boil, Toil, Trouble, Hollywood, CA. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Operatic performance of the movement of water through atmospheric rivers. Commissioned by Art in Common, Chicago.
2023 Heal, Hear, Here. Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Collaborative performance led by local culture bearers celebrating water as kin. Commissioned by Freewaves, Los Angeles.
2021 Generator. Art in Residence, Western Mojave Desert.
Performance for two cellos as call-and-response of nature and infrastructure. Commissioned by Art in Residence / Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Lancaster.
Selected Public Works
2026 Here-and-Now Mountain, UCLA Olive View Hospital.
Permanent public work commissioned by Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (forthcoming)
2024 Beneath the Clay, Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs, CA
Permanent public work commissioned by Under the Sun Foundation
2024 We Are Essential, Gandara Park, Santa Monica, CA
Festival in celebration of social workers of Public Works. Commissioned by City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs and Public Works Division
2023 Procession (Co-Directed with Joel Garcia), Los Angeles State Historic Park Multi-cultural community activation festival and performance in celebration of water as kin
2022 Harbor, Lincoln Park, Long Beach
Temporary installation commissioned by Long Beach Walls
2022 LA Stories, Figueroa Street, Highland Park, Los Angeles
2021 Living Memorial Garden, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Temporary collaborative COVID memorial commissioned by LASHP
2020 Networks of Power, Western Mojave Desert, Lancaster, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Art in Residence in collaboration with Nathaniel Ancheta
2019 The Letting Go, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Arts Exhibition Program, Los Angeles World Airports & Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 Origin and Destination Study, Los Angeles River
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2018 The President Wilson, Statue of Liberty, New York City
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2017 Origins: Los Angeles River 1815/1825, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Permanent public work commissioned by LASHP
Residencies, Awards, and Fellowships
2025 Visiting Artist, Pitzer College (Ceramics)
2023 / 25 Artist in Residence, City of Santa Monica Public Works Division (Water + Waste [Resource, Recovery, and Recycling])
2024 City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (C.O.L.A. IMAP), City of Los Angeles
2022 Future Art Award, Mozaik Philanthropy
2022 Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2021 The Wilhelm Foundation, for Contemporary Art League
2021 / 23 Pasadena Art Alliance, for Procession (2021) and Brackish Water Los Angeles (2023)
2020 /24 Getty Foundations, Brackish Water Los Angeles (Part of PST ART: Art and Science Collide)
2020 National Endowment for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2020 Octavia E. Butler Estate, for PPE Emergency Response
2019 / 20 Cultural Trailblazer, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 /21 The Durfee Foundation, for AIR Projects at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2018 /19 Visiting Artist, Occidental College, Los Angeles
2018 The Mellon Foundation, for Compass Rose at Oxy Arts
2018 Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2012 Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument & Ellis Island with New Jersey City University, New York City
Selected Museums and Public Collections
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Los Angeles
Hamilton Press, Los Angeles
Fidelity Investments, Houston
Ellis Island Museum, New York
Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs CA
London Chamber of Commerce, City of London
International Art Consultants, London
The Media Centre, London
Private collections internationally
Organizational Work
2025 La Ayuda Network, Co-Founder
Artist-led mutual aid network developed in response to the LA Fires. Motto is “We keep each other safe”. Raised $60,000+ for underserved families in Altadena.
2022 Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program, Founding Co-Director
Groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, which brought together more than 70 exhibiting institutions throughout Southern California. Supported by The Getty Foundation.
2022 Artists Commit, Organizing Member
Artist-led initiative to raise climate-consciousness.
2022 5 Million Strong, Organizing Member
Initiative to engage artists in the democratic process.
2020 / 23 Contemporary Art League, Co-Founder
Trade cooperative supporting Los Angeles County artworkers with quality of life support services including access to health insurance services
2020 / 21 PPE Emergency Response, Founding Director, Multi-institutional artist-driven effort resulting in the donation of 125,000 + face shields to Los Angeles County hospital workers while employing 200+ youth during the pandemic.
2017 / 21 AIRProjects, Founding Director, Stipended creative program for research-based climate-focussed artists
Published Writings
2026 Brackish Water Los Angeles catalog (forthcoming)
2023 American Cities Made and Remembered, UCLA Planning Journal Volume 26: Just Futures
2023 The Maps with X-Ray Eyes: The Sanborn Collection, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Volume 85
Selected Explanatory Film
Brackish Water Los Angeles, Presentation documentation. Run time: 14m19s. Co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Leonardo/ISAST as a part of Leonardo’s LASER Talks series and the 2022 Fulcrum Festival: Deep Ocean/Deep Space.
Networks of Power, Video interview. Run time 7m28s. Produced by Art In Residence.
LAX Art at Home, Video interview. Run time: 3m08s. Produced by LAX Airport.
Public Speaking
2026 Echology: Perspectives in Eco-Logic, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2025 Roots, Recovery & Regeneration: State of the Arts Summit, Arts for LA, (Japanese American Cultural & Community Center), Los Angeles
2025 Circular Museum: Converging Practices — Museums in Climate Solidarity, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
2024 Residencies in Dialogue, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2022 Art for Earth’s Sake: The Art World Meets the Crisis, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles
2022 Beyond All Measure: The Sea, the Sky, the Horizon of Our Transitional Present, Fulcrum Arts, Los Angeles
2020 What’s in a Landscape: The Changing Face of Monuments, Art in Residence in collaboration with Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
2020 Systems in Concrete: Cars, Trains and the Relocation of Chinatown, Los Angeles Public Library
2020 Possible Futures: Developing Plural Practices, ICALA, Los Angeles
2020 Amplifying the Green New Deal, YEA! (Young Entertainment Activists), Climate Summit, Los Angeles
2020 Art, Architecture and Activism, American Institute of Architects (AIA| LA) 2°C Climate Symposium, Los Angeles
2019 Build Your Own Systems, Warner Bros Studios, Los Angeles
2019 LA as Lab, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles
2018 Cultures of Art & Tech, Creative Industries Colloquium, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Los Angeles
2018 On Water, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
2018 Archaeology of the Present: Artists Addressing Climate Change. Moderated by Megan Steinman. Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICALA), Los Angeles
2018 Art in the Open, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2018 Artist Talk. The Narrows. Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2017 On Going Home: Art, immigration and tertiary culture. Featuring Tanya Aguiñiga, Carmen Argote, Shagha Ariannia, Regina Mamou, Alexis Zoto. Charlie James Gallery
2017 Origins / Promotorx Talk. Los Angeles State Historic Park
2016 Artist Talk. The Letting Go, Klowden Mann
Guest Lectures 2016
CalArts, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Northridge, Occidental College, UC Santa Barbara
Curatorial
2024 Brackish Water Los Angeles (Co-Directed with Aandrea Stang), California State University Dominguez Hills
Part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide
2024 Conduit, Ontario Museum of History and Art, Ontario, California
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles
2021 Latitude, BioScienceLA, Los Angeles
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
2021 Castle Garden, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles
2018 Cycles, Sony Pictures Lot, Los Angeles
2018 La Reina de los Ángeles, Sturt Haaga Gallery (Descanso Gardens), Los Angeles
2018 Defining Line, Along the Los Angeles River, (Co-curated with Nancy Baker Cahill for 4th Wall)
2017 On Going Home, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
1998 - 2001 Curator, The Spitz Gallery, London, UK
Selected Press
2026 ARTnews, Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions, Andy Battaglia, March 10
2026 Getty Foundation, Getty, LACMA, MOCA, Hammer Museum, and Hauser & Wirth Announce Collective Commitment to Climate Action, Cole Calhoun, March 9
2025 Getty Foundation, PST ART Climate Impact Program Report, November 18
2025 PBS SoCal, Art and Science Collide, Directed by Jessica Kingdon, October
2024 Artillery, Heavy Water: Rethinking the LA River for Future Generations, Renée Reizman, September 10
2024 Public Domain Review, From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Tobiah Black, Jun 12
2024 Art Newspaper, Giving Los Angeles back its lungs, Angella d’Avignon, Feb 26
2023 Artillery, Climate Conscious, Christopher Michno, Sept 5
2022 Los Angeles Times, "As Drought Deepens, Nine L.A. Artists Think about Water”, Christopher Knight, August 22
2022 Los Angeles Times, "L.A. artists take on drought crisis in new show. One solution? Embrace impermanence", Deborah Vankin, August 19
2022 Mozaik Philanthropy, EcoSystem X, "Hope and Beauty on the Edge of Collapse: The Artist as Care-Giver and Composter in Times of Ecological Uncertainty", Elisabeth Buchet-Deák, July
2021 PBS SoCal, "Climate Change-Focused Artist Residency Maps Out a New Future in the Pandemic", Carol Cheh, May
2018 "Concrete is Fluid", Podcast interview, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, July
2018 Los Angeles Times, "How virtual art appearing along the L.A. River tackles gentrification, immigration and environmental issues", Anna Furman, November
2018 Los Angeles Magazine, "Artists Using Augmented Reality… in Powerful Places", Brittany Martin, August
2018 Art and Cake, "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Shana Nys Dambrot, February
2018 Riot Material, "On Immigration, Liminality, and Ellis Island: Debra Scacco’s The Narrows", Ellen C Caldwell, January
2018 Los Angeles Review of Books, Featured Artist, January
2018 Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Aaron Horst, January
2018 "What Artists Listen To", Podcast interview, Pia Pack, August
2017 Feminist Crush, Podcast interview, Kitty Lindsay, March
2016 Kchung, Performance Now, Hosted by Carol Cheh & John Tain, December
2016 New American Paintings, "Light, Letting Go and the LA River", Ellen C, Caldwell, September
2016 Insert Blanc Press, "Classical Music For Artists", David Richards, Geofff Tuck, January
2015 Instagram interview feature, "Explorations of Light and Layers", Andrew Owen, May
2014 Huffington Post, "44 Stunning Art Studios That Will Inspire You To Get Back To Work", Priscilla Frank, August
2013 Huffington Post, "The Space Between", Elizabeth Sobieski, November
2013 Manor House Quarterly, "Dark Art", James Metze, November
2012 Art in America, Feature on Art Platform Los Angeles, Paul Soto, October
2012 White Hot Magazine, Birds of Passage review, Megan Frances, July
2012 Beautiful Decay, "Debra Scacco unlocks the 3 keys of greatness at Marine Contemporary", Daniel Rolnik, June 12
2012 Los Angeles Times, "Debra Scacco maps the psyche at Marine Contemporary", Leah Ollman, May 25
Through installations,sculptures, drawings, paintings and cultural happenings, research-based artist Debra Scacco studies the ecological and cultural impacts of human-induced change. By blending academic research with personal narratives, her work highlights histories of land and water and the beings most affected, creating pathways and platforms for public engagement and action.
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Getty Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and many others. In 2023-24 she was awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Fellowship. She is the first civic-appointed artist-in-residence embedded in the City of Santa Monica’s Water and Waste divisions (2023-25), and was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument in conjunction with New Jersey City University (2012). Scacco is the co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program (2022-25), a groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, was co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles at California State University Dominguez Hills, and is featured in the corresponding PBS documentary Art & Science Collide. Scacco has held teaching positions at Pitzer College, Occidental College and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she invites students into a research and process-based approach to creating interdisciplinary work.
Contact
Studio@DebraScacco.com
Selected CV
—
b. 1976, Staten Island, NY.
Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Laboratory for the Future, City of Santa Monica Propeller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2025 UnMapping LA, Los Angeles Public Library (Central) Los Angeles, CA
2024 Misplaced Rain, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2022 Water Gold Soil, MOAH Lancaster, 2022
2020 Compass Rose, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica
2020 City Upon a Hill, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles
2019 Compass Rose, Oxy Arts, Los Angeles
2018 The Narrows, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2015 The Letting Go, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2013 The Space Between, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles
2012 Richiama, Ellis Island Museum, New York
2012 Birds of Passage, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles
2011 Forever In Between, Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 The Journey is the Destination, California State University, Northridge, CA
2025 Future Flows, Marin MoCA, CA
2025 Foundations, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles CA
2024 C.O.L.A., Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Boil, Toil, Trouble, Art in Common Los Angeles, CA / Chicago. IL2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles
2022 Unsettling California, University of California Santa Barbara
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
2021 Suturo, Suturo, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Passing Time, Passing-Time.Org
2019 Lost in the Sky, LAX Airport, Los Angeles
2018 Archaeology of the Present, 411 Hewitt, Los Angeles
2018 Relative Space, Elevator Mondays, Los Angeles. Curated by Asha Bukojemsky
2018 AIR Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2017 All the Pretty Little Horses, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Transporter, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 VRBBQ, ICALA / Butcher Bird Studios, Los Angeles
2016 Office Hours, Beta Main, Los Angeles
2015 Via Negativa: The Transcendence of the unReal, South Bay Contemporary, Cerritos, California
2014 alon Zürcher, Zürcher Studio, New York
2014 Reds, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
2013 Pulse New York, The Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC
2013 Drawing Now Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
2012 (text)ure, Patrick Heide Contemporary, London, UK
2012 Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island, in conjunction with New Jersey City University
2011 If these walls could talk: A conversation, Charlie James Gallery and Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles
2010 Outside the Lines, Royale Projects, Los Angeles
2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2010 Salon No. 3, Marine, Los Angeles, 2010
2009 / 10 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London followed by national tour
2009 Salon No. 1, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Allotment, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK
2005 70 Years of Penguin Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2004 La Isla Teatro Odisséia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004 Ocularis, Galapagos Art Space, New York
2004 Carbonari, Florean Museum, Romania
2003 Signes de Nuit, Cinema Balzac, Paris
2003 Reduced, Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Viper Basel, Littmann Kulturprojekte, Switzerland
2003 Intervals, ATA, San Francisco, CA
2003 Covert, Whole Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2003 Other, The Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Mutiny, Oxo Tower, London, UK
2002 No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith, Central Space, London, UK
2001 15:17, Photofusion, London,UK
1999 The Zoetrope Project, Spitz Gallery, London, UK
1998 Self, October Gallery, London, UK
Performance
2023 Procession. Los Angeles State Historic Park. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Multipart, community-oriented performance and festival that invited Los Angeles residents to explore the history of the Los Angeles River and the ground beneath their feet. Produced by Fulcrum Arts.
2023 Atmospheric River. Boil, Toil, Trouble, Hollywood, CA. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Operatic performance of the movement of water through atmospheric rivers. Commissioned by Art in Common, Chicago.
2023 Heal, Hear, Here. Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Collaborative performance led by local culture bearers celebrating water as kin. Commissioned by Freewaves, Los Angeles.
2021 Generator. Art in Residence, Western Mojave Desert.
Performance for two cellos as call-and-response of nature and infrastructure. Commissioned by Art in Residence / Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Lancaster.
Selected Public Works
2026 Here-and-Now Mountain, UCLA Olive View Hospital.
Permanent public work commissioned by Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (forthcoming)
2024 Beneath the Clay, Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs, CA
Permanent public work commissioned by Under the Sun Foundation
2024We Are Essential, Gandara Park, Santa Monica, CA
Festival in celebration of social workers of Public Works. Commissioned by City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs and Public Works Division
2023 Procession (Co-Directed with Joel Garcia), Los Angeles State Historic Park Multi-cultural community activation festival and performance in celebration of water as kin
2022 Harbor, Lincoln Park, Long Beach
Temporary installation commissioned by Long Beach Walls
2022 LA Stories, Figueroa Street, Highland Park, Los Angeles
2021 Living Memorial Garden, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Temporary collaborative COVID memorial commissioned by LASHP
2020 Networks of Power, Western Mojave Desert, Lancaster, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Art in Residence in collaboration with Nathaniel Ancheta
2019 The Letting Go, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Arts Exhibition Program, Los Angeles World Airports & Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 Origin and Destination Study, Los Angeles River
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2018 The President Wilson, Statue of Liberty, New York City
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2017 Origins: Los Angeles River 1815/1825, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Permanent public work commissioned by LASHP
Residencies, Awards, and Fellowships
2025 Visiting Artist, Pitzer College (Ceramics)
2023 / 25 Artist in Residence, City of Santa Monica Public Works Division (Water + Waste [Resource, Recovery, and Recycling])
2024 City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (C.O.L.A. IMAP), City of Los Angeles
2022 Future Art Award, Mozaik Philanthropy
2022 Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2021 The Wilhelm Foundation, for Contemporary Art League
2021 / 23 Pasadena Art Alliance, for Procession (2021) and Brackish Water Los Angeles (2023)
2020 /24 Getty Foundations, Brackish Water Los Angeles (Part of PST ART: Art and Science Collide)
2020 National Endowment for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2020 Octavia E. Butler Estate, for PPE Emergency Response
2019 / 20 Cultural Trailblazer, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 /21 The Durfee Foundation, for AIR Projects at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2018 /19 Visiting Artist, Occidental College, Los Angeles
2018 The Mellon Foundation, for Compass Rose at Oxy Arts
2018 Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2012 Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument & Ellis Island with New Jersey City University, New York City
Selected Museums and Public Collections
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Los Angeles
Hamilton Press, Los Angeles
Fidelity Investments, Houston
Ellis Island Museum, New York
Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs CA
London Chamber of Commerce, City of London
International Art Consultants, London
The Media Centre, London
Private collections internationally
Organizational Work
2025 La Ayuda Network, Co-Founder
Artist-led mutual aid network developed in response to the LA Fires. Motto is “We keep each other safe”. Raised $60,000+ for underserved families in Altadena.
2022 Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program, Founding Co-Director
Groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, which brought together more than 70 exhibiting institutions throughout Southern California. Supported by The Getty Foundation.
2022 Artists Commit, Organizing Member
Artist-led initiative to raise climate-consciousness.
2022 5 Million Strong, Organizing Member
Initiative to engage artists in the democratic process.
2020 / 23 Contemporary Art League, Co-Founder
Trade cooperative supporting Los Angeles County artworkers with quality of life support services including access to health insurance services
2020 / 21 PPE Emergency Response, Founding Director, Multi-institutional artist-driven effort resulting in the donation of 125,000 + face shields to Los Angeles County hospital workers while employing 200+ youth during the pandemic.
2017 / 21 AIR Projects, Founding Director, Stipended creative program for research-based climate-focussed artists
Published Writings
2026 Brackish Water Los Angeles catalog (forthcoming)
2023 American Cities Made and Remembered, UCLA Planning Journal Volume 26: Just Futures
2023 The Maps with X-Ray Eyes: The Sanborn Collection, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Volume 85
Selected Explanatory Film
Brackish Water Los Angeles, Presentation documentation. Run time: 14m19s. Co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Leonardo/ISAST as a part of Leonardo’s LASER Talks series and the 2022 Fulcrum Festival: Deep Ocean/Deep Space.
Networks of Power, Video interview. Run time 7m28s. Produced by Art In Residence.
LAX Art at Home, Video interview. Run time: 3m08s. Produced by LAX Airport.
Public Speaking
2026 Echology: Perspectives in Eco-Logic, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2025 Roots, Recovery & Regeneration: State of the Arts Summit, Arts for LA, (Japanese American Cultural & Community Center), Los Angeles
2025 Circular Museum: Converging Practices — Museums in Climate Solidarity, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
2024 Residencies in Dialogue, The MAK Center, Los Angeles
2022 Art for Earth’s Sake: The Art World Meets the Crisis, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles
2022 Beyond All Measure: The Sea, the Sky, the Horizon of Our Transitional Present, Fulcrum Arts, Los Angeles
2020 What’s in a Landscape: The Changing Face of Monuments, Art-in-Residence in collaboration with Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
2020 Systems in Concrete: Cars, Trains and the Relocation of Chinatown, Los Angeles Public Library
2020 Possible Futures: Developing Plural Practices, ICALA, Los Angeles
2020 Amplifying the Green New Deal, YEA! (Young Entertainment Activists), Climate Summit, Los Angeles
2020 Art, Architecture and Activism, American Institute of Architects (AIA| LA) 2°C Climate Symposium, Los Angeles
2019 Build Your Own Systems, Warner Bros Studios, Los Angeles
2019 LA as Lab, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles
2018 Cultures of Art & Tech, Creative Industries Colloquium, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Los Angeles
2018 On Water, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
2018 Archaeology of the Present: Artists Addressing Climate Change. Moderated by Megan Steinman. Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICALA), Los Angeles
2018 Art in the Open, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2018 Artist Talk. The Narrows. Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2017 On Going Home: Art, immigration and tertiary culture. Featuring Tanya Aguiñiga, Carmen Argote, Shagha Ariannia, Regina Mamou, Alexis Zoto. Charlie James Gallery
2017 Origins / Promotorx Talk, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2016 Artist Talk. The Letting Go, Klowden Mann
Guest Lectures 2016
CalArts, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Northridge, Occidental College, UC Santa Barbara
Curatorial
2024 Brackish Water Los Angeles (Co-Directed with Aandrea Stang), California State University Dominguez Hills
Part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide
2024 Conduit, Ontario Museum of History and Art, Ontario, California
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles
2021 Latitude, BioScienceLA, Los Angeles
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
2021 Castle Garden, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles
2018 Cycles, Sony Pictures Lot, Los Angeles
2018 La Reina de los Ángeles, Sturt Haaga Gallery (Descanso Gardens), Los Angeles
2018 Defining Line, Along the Los Angeles River, (Co-curated with Nancy Baker Cahill for 4th Wall)
2017 On Going Home, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
1998 - 2001 Curator, The Spitz Gallery, London, UK
Selected Press
2026 ARTnews, Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions, Andy Battaglia, March 10
2026 Getty Foundation, Getty, LACMA, MOCA, Hammer Museum, and Hauser & Wirth Announce Collective Commitment to Climate Action, Cole Calhoun, March 9
2025 Getty Foundation, PST ART Climate Impact Program Report, November 18
2025 PBS SoCal, Art and Science Collide, Directed by Jessica Kingdon, October
2024 Artillery, Heavy Water: Rethinking the LA River for Future Generations, Renée Reizman, September 10
2024 Public Domain Review, From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Tobiah Black, Jun 12
2024 Art Newspaper, Giving Los Angeles back its lungs, Angella d’Avignon, Feb 26
2023 Artillery, Climate Conscious, Christopher Michno, Sept 5
2022 Los Angeles Times,"As Drought Deepens, Nine L.A. Artists Think about Water”, Christopher Knight, August 22
2022 Los Angeles Times, "L.A. artists take on drought crisis in new show. One solution? Embrace impermanence", Deborah Vankin, August 19
2022 Mozaik Philanthropy, EcoSystem X, "Hope and Beauty on the Edge of Collapse: The Artist as Care-Giver and Composter in Times of Ecological Uncertainty", Elisabeth Buchet-Deák, July
2021 PBS SoCal, "Climate Change-Focused Artist Residency Maps Out a New Future in the Pandemic", Carol Cheh, May
2018 "Concrete is Fluid", Podcast interview, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, July
2018 Los Angeles Times, "How virtual art appearing along the L.A. River tackles gentrification, immigration and environmental issues", Anna Furman, November
2018 Los Angeles Magazine, "Artists Using Augmented Reality… in Powerful Places", Brittany Martin, August
2018 Art and Cake, "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Shana Nys Dambrot, February
2018 Riot Material, "On Immigration, Liminality, and Ellis Island: Debra Scacco’s The Narrows", Ellen C Caldwell, January
2018 Los Angeles Review of Books, Featured Artist, January
2018 Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Aaron Horst, January
2018 "What Artists Listen To", Podcast interview, Pia Pack, August
2017 Feminist Crush, Podcast interview, Kitty Lindsay, March
2016 Kchung, Performance Now, Hosted by Carol Cheh & John Tain, December
2016 New American Paintings, "Light, Letting Go and the LA River", Ellen C, Caldwell, September
2016 Insert Blanc Press, "Classical Music For Artists", David Richards, Geoff Tuck, January
2015 Instagram interview feature, "Explorations of Light and Layers", Andrew Owen, May
2014 Huffington Post, "44 Stunning Art Studios That Will Inspire You To Get Back To Work", Priscilla Frank, August
2013 Huffington Post, "The Space Between", Elizabeth Sobieski, November
2013 Manor House Quarterly, "Dark Art", James Metze, November
2012 Art in America, Feature on Art Platform Los Angeles, Paul Soto, October
2012 White Hot Magazine, Birds of Passage review, Megan Frances, July
2012 Beautiful Decay, "Debra Scacco unlocks the 3 keys of greatness at Marine Contemporary", Daniel Rolnik, June 12
2012 Los Angeles Times, "Debra Scacco maps the psyche at Marine Contemporary", Leah Ollman, May 25
Through installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings and cultural happenings, research-based artist Debra Scacco studies the ecological and cultural impacts of human-induced change. By blending academic research with personal narratives, her work highlights histories of land and water and the beings most affected, creating pathways and platforms for public engagement and action.
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Getty Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and many others. In 2023-24 she was awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Fellowship. She is the first civic-appointed artist-in-residence embedded in the City of Santa Monica’s Water and Waste divisions (2023-25), and was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument in conjunction with New Jersey City University (2012). Scacco is the co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program (2022-25), a groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, was co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles at California State University Dominguez Hills, and is featured in the corresponding PBS documentary Art & Science Collide. Scacco has held teaching positions at Pitzer College, Occidental College and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she invites students into a research and process-based approach to creating interdisciplinary work.
Contact
Studio (at) DebraScacco.com
Selected CV
—
b. 1976, Staten Island, NY.
Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Laboratory for the Future, City of Santa Monica Propeller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2025 UnMapping LA, Los Angeles Public Library (Central) Los Angeles, CA
2024 Misplaced Rain, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2022 Water Gold Soil, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2020 Compass Rose, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA
2020 City Upon a Hill, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Compass Rose, Oxy Arts (Occidental College), Los Angeles, CA
2018 The Narrows, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2015 The Letting Go, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2013 The Space Between, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Richiama, Ellis Island Museum, New York
2012 Birds of Passage, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Forever In Between, Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 The Journey is the Destination, California State University, Northridge, CA
2025 Future Flows, Marin MoCA, CA
2025 Foundations, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles CA
2024 C.O.L.A., Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Boil, Toil, Trouble, Art in Common Los Angeles, CA / Chicago. IL
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Unsettling California, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Suturo, Suturo, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Passing Time, Passing-Time.Org
2019 Lost in the Sky, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Archaeology of the Present, 411 Hewitt, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Santa Monica Airport
2018 Starless Midnight, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle UK
2018 Relative Space, Elevator Mondays, Los Angeles. Curated by Asha Bukojemsky
2018 AIR Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2017 All the Pretty Little Horses, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Transporter, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 VRBBQ, ICALA / Butcher Bird Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Office Hours, Main Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Via Negativa: The Transcendence of the unReal, South Bay Contemporary, Cerritos, CA
2015 Live Action – Repetition, Routine, Redundancy in the Moving Image, Mint Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014 Texas Contemporary, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
2014 Salon Zürcher, Zürcher Studio, New York
2014 Reds, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Pulse New York, The Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC
2013 Drawing Now Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
2013 APLA, Bonhams, Los Angeles, CA
2012 (text)ure, Patrick Heide Contemporary, London, UK
2012 Art Platform - Los Angeles, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument and
Ellis Island, in conjunction with New Jersey City University
2011 If these walls could talk: A conversation, Charlie James Gallery and Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles
2011 Outside the Lines, Royale Projects, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2010 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Salon No. 3, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2009 / 10 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London followed by national tour
2009 Salon No. 1, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Allotment, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK
2005 70 Years of Penguin Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2004 La Isla Teatro Odisséia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004 Ocularis, Galapagos Art Space, New York
2004 Carbonari, Florean Museum, Romania
2003 Signes de Nuit, Cinema Balzac, Paris
2003 Reduced, Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Viper Basel, Littmann Kulturprojekte, Switzerland
2003 Intervals, ATA, San Francisco, CA
2003 Covert, Whole Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2003 Other, The Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Mutiny, Oxo Tower, London, UK
2002 No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith, Central Space, London, UK
2001 15:17, Photofusion, London, UK
1999 The Zoetrope Project, Spitz Gallery, London, UK
1998 Self, October Gallery, London, UK
Performance
2023 Procession. Los Angeles State Historic Park. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Multipart, community-oriented performance and festival that invited Los Angeles residents to explore the history of the Los Angeles River and the ground beneath their feet. Produced by Fulcrum Arts.
2023 Atmospheric River. Boil, Toil, Trouble, Hollywood, CA. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Operatic performance of the movement of water through atmospheric rivers. Commissioned by Art in Common, Chicago.
2023 Heal, Hear, Here. Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Collaborative performance led by local culture bearers celebrating water as kin. Commissioned by Freewaves, Los Angeles.
2021 Generator. Art-in-Residence, Western Mojave Desert.
Performance for two cellos as call-and-response of nature and infrastructure. Commissioned by Art in Residence / Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Lancaster.
Selected Public Works
2026 Here-and-Now Mountain, UCLA Olive View Hospital.
Permanent public work commissioned by Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (forthcoming)
2024 Beneath the Clay, Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs, CA
Permanent public work commissioned by Under the Sun Foundation
2024 We Are Essential, Gandara Park, Santa Monica, CA
Festival in celebration of social workers of Public Works. Commissioned by City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs and Public Works Division
2023 Procession (Co-Directed with Joel Garcia), Los Angeles State Historic Park Multi-cultural community activation festival and performance in celebration of water as kin
2022 Harbor, Lincoln Park, Long Beach
Temporary installation commissioned by Long Beach Walls
2022 LA Stories, Figueroa Street, Highland Park, Los Angeles
2021 Living Memorial Garden, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Temporary collaborative COVID memorial commissioned by LASHP
2020 Networks of Power, Western Mojave Desert, Lancaster, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Art in Residence in collaboration with Nathaniel Ancheta
2019 The Letting Go, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Arts Exhibition Program, Los Angeles World Airports & Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 Origin and Destination Study, Los Angeles River
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2018 The President Wilson, Statue of Liberty, New York City
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2017 Origins: Los Angeles River 1815/1825, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Permanent public work commissioned by LASHP
Residencies, Awards, and Fellowships
2025 Visiting Artist, Pitzer College (Ceramics)
2023 / 25 Artist in Residence, City of Santa Monica Public Works Division (Water + Waste [Resource, Recovery, and Recycling])
2024 City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (C.O.L.A. IMAP), City of Los Angeles
2022 Future Art Award, Mozaik Philanthropy
2022 Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2021 The Wilhelm Foundation, for Contemporary Art League
2021 / 23 Pasadena Art Alliance, for Procession (2021) and Brackish Water Los Angeles (2023)
2020 /24 Getty Foundations, Brackish Water Los Angeles (Part of PST ART: Art and Science Collide)
2020 National Endowment for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2020 Octavia E. Butler Estate, for PPE Emergency Response
2019 / 20 Cultural Trailblazer, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 /21 The Durfee Foundation, for AIR Projects at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2018 /19 Visiting Artist, Occidental College, Los Angeles
2018 The Mellon Foundation, for Compass Rose at Oxy Arts
2018 Artist -in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2012 Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument & Ellis Island with New Jersey City University, New York City
Selected Museums and Public Collections
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Los Angeles
Hamilton Press, Los Angeles
Fidelity Investments, Houston
Ellis Island Museum, New York
Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs CA
London Chamber of Commerce, City of London
International Art Consultants, London
The Media Centre, London
Private collections internationally
Organizational Work
2025 La Ayuda Network, Co-Founder
Artist-led mutual aid network developed in response to the LA Fires. Motto is “We keep each other safe”. Raised $60,000+ for underserved families in Altadena.
2022 Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program, Founding Co-Director
Groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, which brought together more than 70 exhibiting institutions throughout Southern California. Supported by The Getty Foundation.
2022 Artists Commit, Organizing Member
Artist-led initiative to raise climate-consciousness.
2022 5 Million Strong, Organizing Member
Initiative to engage artists in the democratic process.
2020 / 23 Contemporary Art League, Co-Founder
Trade cooperative supporting Los Angeles County artworkers with quality of life support services including access to health insurance services
2020 / 21 PPE Emergency Response, Founding Director, Multi-institutional artist-driven effort resulting in the donation of 125,000 + face shields to Los Angeles County hospital workers while employing 200+ youth during the pandemic.
2017 / 21 AIR Projects, Founding Director, Stipended creative program for research-based climate-focussed artists
Published Writings
2026 Brackish Water Los Angeles catalog (forthcoming)
2023 American Cities Made and Remembered, UCLA Planning Journal Volume 26: Just Futures
2023 The Maps with X-Ray Eyes: The Sanborn Collection, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Volume 85
Selected Explanatory Film
Brackish Water Los Angeles, Presentation documentation. Run time: 14m19s. Co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Leonardo/ISAST as a part of Leonardo’s LASER Talks series and the 2022 Fulcrum Festival: Deep Ocean/Deep Space.
Networks of Power, Video interview. Run time 7m28s. Produced by Art In Residence.
LAX Art at Home, Video interview. Run time: 3m08s. Produced by LAX Airport.
Public Speaking
2026 Echology: Perspectives in Eco-Logic, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2025 Roots, Recovery & Regeneration: State of the Arts Summit, Arts for LA, (Japanese American Cultural & Community Center), Los Angeles
2025 Circular Museum: Converging Practices — Museums in Climate Solidarity, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
2024 Residencies in Dialogue, The MAK Center, Los Angeles
2022 Art for Earth’s Sake: The Art World Meets the Crisis, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles
2022 Beyond All Measure: The Sea, the Sky, the Horizon of Our Transitional Present, Fulcrum Arts, Los Angeles
2020 What’s in a Landscape: The Changing Face of Monuments, Art in Residence in collaboration with Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
2020 Systems in Concrete: Cars, Trains and the Relocation of Chinatown, Los Angeles Public Library
2020 Possible Futures: Developing Plural Practices, ICALA, Los Angeles
2020 Amplifying the Green New Deal, YEA! (Young Entertainment Activists), Climate Summit, Los Angeles
2020 Art, Architecture and Activism, American Institute of Architects (AIA| LA) 2°C Climate Symposium, Los Angeles
2019 Build Your Own Systems, Warner Bros Studios, Los Angeles
2019 LA as Lab, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles
2018 Cultures of Art & Tech, Creative Industries Colloquium, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Los Angeles
2018 On Water, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
2018 Archaeology of the Present: Artists Addressing Climate Change. Moderated by Megan Steinman. Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICALA), Los Angeles
2018 Art in the Open, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2018 Artist Talk. The Narrows. Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2017 On Going Home: Art, immigration and tertiary culture. Featuring Tanya Aguiñiga, Carmen Argote, Shagha Ariannia, Regina Mamou, Alexis Zoto. Charlie James Gallery
2017 Origins / Promotorx Talk. Los Angeles State Historic Park
2016 Artist Talk. The Letting Go, Klowden Mann
Guest Lectures 2016
CalArts, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Northridge, Occidental College, UC Santa Barbara
Curatorial
2024 Brackish Water Los Angeles (Co-Directed with Aandrea Stang), California State University Dominguez Hills
Part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide
2024 Conduit, Ontario Museum of History and Art, Ontario, California
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles
2021 Latitude, BioScienceLA, Los Angeles
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
2021 Castle Garden, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles
2018 Cycles, Sony Pictures Lot, Los Angeles
2018 La Reina de los Ángeles, Sturt Haaga Gallery (Descanso Gardens), Los Angeles
2018 Defining Line, Along the Los Angeles River, (Co-curated with Nancy Baker Cahill for 4th Wall)
2017 On Going Home, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
1998 - 2001 Curator, The Spitz Gallery, London, UK
Selected Press
2026 ARTnews, Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions, Andy Battaglia, March 10
2026 Getty Foundation, Getty, LACMA, MOCA, Hammer Museum, and Hauser & Wirth Announce Collective Commitment to Climate Action, Cole Calhoun, March 9
2025 Getty Foundation, PST ART Climate Impact Program Report, November 18
2025 PBS SoCal, Art and Science Collide, Directed by Jessica Kingdon, October
2024 Artillery, Heavy Water: Rethinking the LA River for Future Generations, Renée Reizman, September 10
22024 Public Domain Review, From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Tobiah Black, Jun 12
2024 Art Newspaper, Giving Los Angeles back its lungs, Angella d’Avignon, Feb 26
2023 Artillery, Climate Conscious, Christopher Michno, Sept 5
2022 Los Angeles Times, "As Drought Deepens, Nine L.A. Artists Think about Water”, Christopher Knight, August 22
2022 Los Angeles Times, "L.A. artists take on drought crisis in new show. One solution? Embrace impermanence", Deborah Vankin, August 19
2022 Mozaik Philanthropy, EcoSystem X, "Hope and Beauty on the Edge of Collapse: The Artist as Care-Giver and Composter in Times of Ecological Uncertainty", Elisabeth Buchet-Deák, July
2021 PBS SoCal, "Climate Change-Focused Artist Residency Maps Out a New Future in the Pandemic", Carol Cheh, May
2018 "Concrete is Fluid", Podcast interview, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, July
2018 Los Angeles Times, "How virtual art appearing along the L.A. River tackles gentrification, immigration and environmental issues", Anna Furman, November
2018 Los Angeles Magazine, "Artists Using Augmented Reality… in Powerful Places", Brittany Martin, August
2018 Art and Cake, "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Shana Nys Dambrot, February
2018 Riot Material, "On Immigration, Liminality, and Ellis Island: Debra Scacco’s The Narrows", Ellen C Caldwell, January
2018 Los Angeles Review of Books, Featured Artist, January
2018 Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Aaron Horst, January
2018 "What Artists Listen To", Podcast interview, Pia Pack, August
2017 Feminist Crush, Podcast interview, Kitty Lindsay, March
2016 Kchung, Performance Now, Hosted by Carol Cheh & John Tain, December
2016 New American Paintings, "Light, Letting Go and the LA River", Ellen C, Caldwell, September
2016 Insert Blanc Press, "Classical Music For Artists", David Richards, Geoff Tuck, January
2015 Instagram interview feature, "Explorations of Light and Layers", Andrew Owen, May
2014 Huffington Post, "44 Stunning Art Studios That Will Inspire You To Get Back To Work", Priscilla Frank, August
2013 Huffington Post, "The Space Between", Elizabeth Sobieski, November
2013 Manor House Quarterly, "Dark Art", James Metze, November
2012 Art in America, Feature on Art Platform Los Angeles, Paul Soto, October
2012 White Hot Magazine, Birds of Passage review, Megan Frances, July
2012 Beautiful Decay, "Debra Scacco unlocks the 3 keys of greatness at Marine Contemporary", Daniel Rolnik, June 12
2012 Los Angeles Times, "Debra Scacco maps the psyche at Marine Contemporary", Leah Ollman, May 25
Through installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings and cultural happenings, research-based artist Debra Scacco studies the ecological and cultural impacts of human-induced change. By blending academic research with personal narratives, her work highlights histories of land and water and the beings most affected, creating pathways and platforms for public engagement and action.
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Getty Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and many others. In 2023-24 she was awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Fellowship. She is the first civic-appointed artist-in-residence embedded in the City of Santa Monica’s Water and Waste divisions (2023-25), and was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument in conjunction with New Jersey City University (2012). Scacco is the co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program (2022-25), a groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, was co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles at California State University Dominguez Hills, and is featured in the corresponding PBS documentary Art & Science Collide. Scacco has held teaching positions at Pitzer College, Occidental College and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she invites students into a research and process-based approach to creating interdisciplinary work.
Contact
Studio (at) DebraScacco.com
Selected CV
—
b. 1976, Staten Island, NY.
Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Laboratory for the Future, City of Santa Monica Propeller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2025 UnMapping LA, Los Angeles Public Library (Central) Los Angeles, CA
2024 Misplaced Rain, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2022 Water Gold Soil, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2020 Compass Rose, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA
2020 City Upon a Hill, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Compass Rose, Oxy Arts (Occidental College), Los Angeles, CA
2018 The Narrows, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2015 The Letting Go, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2013 The Space Between, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Richiama, Ellis Island Museum, New York
2012 Birds of Passage, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Forever In Between, Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 The Journey is the Destination, California State University, Northridge, CA
2025 Future Flows, Marin MoCA, CA
2025 Foundations, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles CA
2024 C.O.L.A., Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Boil, Toil, Trouble, Art in Common Los Angeles, CA / Chicago. IL
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Unsettling California, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Suturo, Suturo, Los Angeles,CA
2020 Passing Time, Passing-Time.Org
2019 Lost in the Sky, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Archaeology of the Present, 411 Hewitt, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Santa Monica Airport
2018 Starless Midnight, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle UK
2018 Relative Space, Elevator Mondays, Los Angeles. Curated by Asha Bukojemsky
2018 AIR Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2017 All the Pretty Little Horses, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Transporter, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 VRBBQ, ICALA / Butcher Bird Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Office Hours, Main Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Via Negativa: The Transcendence of the unReal, South Bay Contemporary, Cerritos, CA
2015 Live Action – Repetition, Routine, Redundancy in the Moving Image, Mint Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014 Texas Contemporary, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
2014 Salon Zürcher, Zürcher Studio, New York
2014 Reds, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Pulse New York, The Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC
2013 Drawing Now Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
2013 APLA, Bonhams, Los Angeles, CA
2012 (text)ure, Patrick Heide Contemporary, London, UK
2012 Art Platform - Los Angeles, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument and
Ellis Island, in conjunction with New Jersey City University
2011 If these walls could talk: A conversation, Charlie James Gallery and Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles
2011 Outside the Lines, Royale Projects, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2010 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Salon No. 3, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2009 / 10 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London followed by national tour
2009 Salon No. 1, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Allotment, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK
2005 70 Years of Penguin Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2004 La Isla Teatro Odisséia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004 Ocularis, Galapagos Art Space, New York
2004 Carbonari, Florean Museum, Romania
2003 Signes de Nuit, Cinema Balzac, Paris
2003 Reduced, Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Viper Basel, Littmann Kulturprojekte, Switzerland
2003 Intervals, ATA, San Francisco, CA
2003 Covert, Whole Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2003 Other, The Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Mutiny, Oxo Tower, London, UK
2002 No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith, Central Space, London, UK
2001 15:17, Photofusion, London, UK
1999 The Zoetrope Project, Spitz Gallery, London, UK
1998 Self, October Gallery, London, UK
Performance
2023 Procession. Los Angeles State Historic Park. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Multipart, community-oriented performance and festival that invited Los Angeles residents to explore the history of the Los Angeles River and the ground beneath their feet. Produced by Fulcrum Arts.
2023 Atmospheric River. Boil, Toil, Trouble, Hollywood, CA. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Operatic performance of the movement of water through atmospheric rivers. Commissioned by Art in Common, Chicago.
2023 Heal, Hear, Here. Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Collaborative performance led by local culture bearers celebrating water as kin. Commissioned by Freewaves, Los Angeles.
2021 Generator. Art in Residence, Western Mojave Desert.
Performance for two cellos as call-and-response of nature and infrastructure. Commissioned by Art in Residence / Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Lancaster.
Selected Public Works
2026 Here-and-Now Mountain, UCLA Olive View Hospital.
Permanent public work commissioned by Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (forthcoming)
2024 Beneath the Clay, Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs, CA
Permanent public work commissioned by Under the Sun Foundation
2024 We Are Essential, Gandara Park, Santa Monica, CA
Festival in celebration of social workers of Public Works. Commissioned by City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs and Public Works Division
2023 Procession (Co-Directed with Joel Garcia), Los Angeles State Historic Park Multi-cultural community activation festival and performance in celebration of water as kin
2022 Harbor, Lincoln Park, Long Beach
Temporary installation commissioned by Long Beach Walls
2022 LA Stories, Figueroa Street, Highland Park, Los Angeles
2021 Living Memorial Garden, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Temporary collaborative COVID memorial commissioned by LASHP
2020 Networks of Power, Western Mojave Desert, Lancaster, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Art in Residence in collaboration with Nathaniel Ancheta
2019 The Letting Go, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Arts Exhibition Program, Los Angeles World Airports & Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 Origin and Destination Study, Los Angeles River
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2018 The President Wilson, Statue of Liberty, New York City
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2017 Origins: Los Angeles River 1815/1825, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Permanent public work commissioned by LASHP
Residencies, Awards, and Fellowships
2025 Visiting Artist, Pitzer College (Ceramics)
2023 / 25 Artist in Residence, City of Santa Monica Public Works Division (Water + Waste [Resource, Recovery, and Recycling])
2024 City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (C.O.L.A. IMAP), City of Los Angeles
2022 Future Art Award, Mozaik Philanthropy
2022 Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2021 The Wilhelm Foundation, for Contemporary Art League
2021 / 23 Pasadena Art Alliance, for Procession (2021) and Brackish Water Los Angeles (2023)
2020 /24 Getty Foundations, Brackish Water Los Angeles (Part of PST ART: Art and Science Collide)
2020 National Endowment for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2020 Octavia E. Butler Estate, for PPE Emergency Response
2019 / 20 Cultural Trailblazer, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 /21 The Durfee Foundation, for AIR Projects at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2018 /19 Visiting Artist, Occidental College, Los Angeles
2018 The Mellon Foundation, for Compass Rose at Oxy Arts
2018 Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2012 Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument & Ellis Island with New Jersey City University, New York City
Selected Museums and Public Collections
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Los Angeles
Hamilton Press, Los Angeles
Fidelity Investments, Houston
Ellis Island Museum, New York
Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs CA
London Chamber of Commerce, City of London
International Art Consultants, London
The Media Centre, London
Private collections internationally
Organizational Work
2025 La Ayuda Network, Co-Founder
Artist-led mutual aid network developed in response to the LA Fires. Motto is “We keep each other safe”. Raised $60,000+ for underserved families in Altadena.
2022 Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program, Founding Co-Director
Groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, which brought together more than 70 exhibiting institutions throughout Southern California. Supported by The Getty Foundation.
2022 Artists Commit, Organizing Member
Artist-led initiative to raise climate-consciousness.
2022 5 Million Strong, Organizing Member
Initiative to engage artists in the democratic process.
2020 / 23 Contemporary Art League, Co-Founder
Trade cooperative supporting Los Angeles County artworkers with quality of life support services including access to health insurance services
2020 / 21 PPE Emergency Response, Founding Director, Multi-institutional artist-driven effort resulting in the donation of 125,000 + face shields to Los Angeles County hospital workers while employing 200+ youth during the pandemic.
2017 / 21 AIRProjects, Founding Director, Stipended creative program for research-based climate-focussed artists
Published Writings
2026 Brackish Water Los Angeles catalog (forthcoming)
2023 American Cities Made and Remembered, UCLA Planning Journal Volume 26: Just Futures
2023 The Maps with X-Ray Eyes: The Sanborn Collection, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Volume 85
Selected Explanatory Film
Brackish Water Los Angeles, Presentation documentation. Run time: 14m19s. Co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Leonardo/ISAST as a part of Leonardo’s LASER Talks series and the 2022 Fulcrum Festival: Deep Ocean/Deep Space.
Networks of Power, Video interview. Run time 7m28s. Produced by Art In Residence.
LAX Art at Home, Video interview. Run time: 3m08s. Produced by LAX Airport.
Public Speaking
2026 Echology: Perspectives in Eco-Logic, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2025 Roots, Recovery & Regeneration: State of the Arts Summit, Arts for LA, (Japanese American Cultural & Community Center), Los Angeles
2025 Circular Museum: Converging Practices — Museums in Climate Solidarity, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
2024 Residencies in Dialogue, The MAK Center, Los Angeles
2022 Art for Earth’s Sake: The Art World Meets the Crisis, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles
2022 Beyond All Measure: The Sea, the Sky, the Horizon of Our Transitional Present, Fulcrum Arts, Los Angeles
2020 What’s in a Landscape: The Changing Face of Monuments, Art in Residence in collaboration with Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
2020 Systems in Concrete: Cars, Trains and the Relocation of Chinatown, Los Angeles Public Library
2020 Possible Futures: Developing Plural Practices, ICALA, Los Angeles
2020 Amplifying the Green New Deal, YEA! (Young Entertainment Activists), Climate Summit, Los Angeles
2020 Art, Architecture and Activism, American Institute of Architects (AIA| LA) 2°C Climate Symposium, Los Angeles
2019 Build Your Own Systems, Warner Bros Studios, Los Angeles
2019 LA as Lab, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles
2018 Cultures of Art & Tech, Creative Industries Colloquium, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Los Angeles
2018 On Water, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
2018 Archaeology of the Present: Artists Addressing Climate Change. Moderated by Megan Steinman. Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICALA), Los Angeles
2018 Art in the Open, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2018 Artist Talk. The Narrows. Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2017 On Going Home: Art, immigration and tertiary culture. Featuring Tanya Aguiñiga, Carmen Argote, Shagha Ariannia, Regina Mamou, Alexis Zoto. Charlie James Gallery
2017 Origins / Promotorx Talk. Los Angeles State Historic Park
2016 Artist Talk. The Letting Go, Klowden Mann
Guest Lectures 2016
CalArts, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Northridge, Occidental College, UC Santa Barbara
Curatorial
2024 Brackish Water Los Angeles (Co-Directed with Aandrea Stang), California State University Dominguez Hills
Part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide
2024 Conduit, Ontario Museum of History and Art, Ontario, California
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles
2021 Latitude, BioScienceLA, Los Angeles
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
2021 Castle Garden, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles
2018 Cycles, Sony Pictures Lot, Los Angeles
2018 La Reina de los Ángeles, Sturt Haaga Gallery (Descanso Gardens), Los Angeles
2018 Defining Line, Along the Los Angeles River, (Co-curated with Nancy Baker Cahill for 4th Wall)
2017 On Going Home, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
1998 - 2001 Curator, The Spitz Gallery, London, UK
Selected Press
2026 ARTnews, Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions, Andy Battaglia, March 10
2026 Getty Foundation, Getty, LACMA, MOCA, Hammer Museum, and Hauser & Wirth Announce Collective Commitment to Climate Action, Cole Calhoun, March 9
2025 Getty Foundation, PST ART Climate Impact Program Report, November 18
2025 PBS SoCal, Art and Science Collide, Directed by Jessica Kingdon, October
2024 Artillery, Heavy Water: Rethinking the LA River for Future Generations, Renée Reizman, September 10
22024 Public Domain Review, From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Tobiah Black, Jun 12
2024 Art Newspaper, Giving Los Angeles back its lungs, Angella d’Avignon, Feb 26
2023 Artillery, Climate Conscious, Christopher Michno, Sept 5
2022 Los Angeles Times, "As Drought Deepens, Nine L.A. Artists Think about Water”, Christopher Knight, August 22
2022 Los Angeles Times, "L.A. artists take on drought crisis in new show. One solution? Embrace impermanence", Deborah Vankin, August 19
2022 Mozaik Philanthropy, EcoSystem X, "Hope and Beauty on the Edge of Collapse: The Artist as Care-Giver and Composter in Times of Ecological Uncertainty", Elisabeth Buchet-Deák, July
2021 PBS SoCal, "Climate Change-Focused Artist Residency Maps Out a New Future in the Pandemic", Carol Cheh, May
2018 "Concrete is Fluid", Podcast interview, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, July
2018 Los Angeles Times, "How virtual art appearing along the L.A. River tackles gentrification, immigration and environmental issues", Anna Furman, November
2018 Los Angeles Magazine, "Artists Using Augmented Reality… in Powerful Places", Brittany Martin, August
2018 Art and Cake, "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Shana Nys Dambrot, February
2018 Riot Material, "On Immigration, Liminality, and Ellis Island: Debra Scacco’s The Narrows", Ellen C Caldwell, January
2018 Los Angeles Review of Books, Featured Artist, January
2018 Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Aaron Horst, January
2018 "What Artists Listen To", Podcast interview, Pia Pack, August
2017 Feminist Crush, Podcast interview, Kitty Lindsay, March
2016 Kchung, Performance Now, Hosted by Carol Cheh & John Tain, December
2016 New American Paintings, "Light, Letting Go and the LA River", Ellen C, Caldwell, September
2016 Insert Blanc Press, "Classical Music For Artists", David Richards, Geofff Tuck, January
2015 Instagram interview feature, "Explorations of Light and Layers", Andrew Owen, May
2014 Huffington Post, "44 Stunning Art Studios That Will Inspire You To Get Back To Work", Priscilla Frank, August
2013 Huffington Post, "The Space Between", Elizabeth Sobieski, November
2013 Manor House Quarterly, "Dark Art", James Metze, November
2012 Art in America, Feature on Art Platform Los Angeles, Paul Soto, October
2012 White Hot Magazine, Birds of Passage review, Megan Frances, July
2012 Beautiful Decay, "Debra Scacco unlocks the 3 keys of greatness at Marine Contemporary", Daniel Rolnik, June 12
2012 Los Angeles Times, "Debra Scacco maps the psyche at Marine Contemporary", Leah Ollman, May 25
Though installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings and cultural happenings, research-based artist Debra Scacco studies the ecological and cultural impacts of human-induced change. By blending academic research with personal narratives, her work highlights histories of land and water and the beings most affected, creating pathways and platforms for public engagement and action.
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Getty Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and many others. In 2023-24 she was awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Fellowship. She is the first civic-appointed artist-in-residence embedded in the City of Santa Monica’s Water and Waste divisions (2023-25), and was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument in conjunction with New Jersey City University (2012). Scacco is the co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program (2022-25), a groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, was co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles at California State University Dominguez Hills, and is featured in the corresponding PBS documentary Art & Science Collide. Scacco has held teaching positions at Pitzer College, Occidental College and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she invites students into a research and process-based approach to creating interdisciplinary work.
Contact
Studio (at) DebraScacco.com
Selected CV
—
b. 1976, Staten Island, NY.
Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Laboratory for the Future, City of Santa Monica Propeller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2025 UnMapping LA, Los Angeles Public Library (Central) Los Angeles, CA
2024 Misplaced Rain, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2022 Water Gold Soil, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA
2020 Compass Rose, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA
2020 City Upon a Hill, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Compass Rose, Oxy Arts (Occidental College), Los Angeles, CA
2018 The Narrows, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2015 The Letting Go, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2013 The Space Between, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Richiama, Ellis Island Museum, New York
2012 Birds of Passage, Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Forever In Between, Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 The Journey is the Destination, California State University, Northridge, CA
2025 Future Flows, Marin MoCA, CA
2025 Foundations, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles CA
2024 C.O.L.A., Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Boil, Toil, Trouble, Art in Common Los Angeles, CA / Chicago. IL
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Unsettling California, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Suturo, Suturo, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Passing Time, Passing-Time.Org
2019 Lost in the Sky, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Archaeology of the Present, 411 Hewitt, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Santa Monica Airport
2018 Starless Midnight, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle UK
2018 Relative Space, Elevator Mondays, Los Angeles. Curated by Asha Bukojemsky
2018 AIR Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2017 All the Pretty Little Horses, Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Transporter, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 VRBBQ, ICALA / Butcher Bird Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Office Hours, Main Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Via Negativa: The Transcendence of the unReal, South Bay Contemporary, Cerritos, CA
2015 Live Action – Repetition, Routine, Redundancy in the Moving Image, Mint Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014 Texas Contemporary, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
2014 Salon Zürcher, Zürcher Studio, New York
2014 Reds, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Pulse New York, The Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC
2013 Drawing Now Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
2013 APLA, Bonhams, Los Angeles, CA
2012 (text)ure, Patrick Heide Contemporary, London, UK
2012 Art Platform - Los Angeles, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument and
Ellis Island, in conjunction with New Jersey City University
2011 If these walls could talk: A conversation, Charlie James Gallery and Marine Art Salon, Los Angeles
2011 Outside the Lines, Royale Projects, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2010 Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Salon No. 3, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2009 / 10 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London followed by national tour
2009 Salon No. 1, Marine, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Allotment, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK
2005 70 Years of Penguin Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2004 La Isla Teatro Odisséia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004 Ocularis, Galapagos Art Space, New York
2004 Carbonari, Florean Museum, Romania
2003 Signes de Nuit, Cinema Balzac, Paris
2003 Reduced, Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Viper Basel, Littmann Kulturprojekte, Switzerland
2003 Intervals, ATA, San Francisco, CA
2003 Covert, Whole Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2003 Other, The Century Gallery, London, UK
2003 Mutiny, Oxo Tower, London, UK
2002 No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith, Central Space, London, UK
2001 15:17, Photofusion, London, UK
1999 The Zoetrope Project, Spitz Gallery, London, UK
1998 Self, October Gallery, London, UK
Performance
2023 Procession. Los Angeles State Historic Park. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Multipart, community-oriented performance and festival that invited Los Angeles residents to explore the history of the Los Angeles River and the ground beneath their feet. Produced by Fulcrum Arts.
2023 Atmospheric River. Boil, Toil, Trouble, Hollywood, CA. Co-directed with Joel Garcia.
Operatic performance of the movement of water through atmospheric rivers. Commissioned by Art in Common, Chicago.
2023 Heal, Hear, Here. Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Collaborative performance led by local culture bearers celebrating water as kin. Commissioned by Freewaves, Los Angeles.
2021 Generator. Art in Residence, Western Mojave Desert.
Performance for two cellos as call-and-response of nature and infrastructure. Commissioned by Art in Residence / Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Lancaster.
Selected Public Works
2026 Here-and-Now Mountain, UCLA Olive View Hospital.
Permanent public work commissioned by Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (forthcoming)
2024 Beneath the Clay, Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs, CA
Permanent public work commissioned by Under the Sun Foundation
2024 We Are Essential, Gandara Park, Santa Monica, CA
Festival in celebration of social workers of Public Works. Commissioned by City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs and Public Works Division
2023 Procession (Co-Directed with Joel Garcia), Los Angeles State Historic Park Multi-cultural community activation festival and performance in celebration of water as kin
2022 Harbor, Lincoln Park, Long Beach
Temporary installation commissioned by Long Beach Walls
2022 LA Stories, Figueroa Street, Highland Park, Los Angeles
2021 Living Memorial Garden, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Temporary collaborative COVID memorial commissioned by LASHP
2020 Networks of Power, Western Mojave Desert, Lancaster, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Art in Residence in collaboration with Nathaniel Ancheta
2019 The Letting Go, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA
Temporary work commissioned by Arts Exhibition Program, Los Angeles World Airports & Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 Origin and Destination Study, Los Angeles River
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2018 The President Wilson, Statue of Liberty, New York City
Temporary augmented reality work in collaboration with 4th Wall / Nancy Baker Cahill
2017 Origins: Los Angeles River 1815/1825, Los Angeles State Historic Park
Permanent public work commissioned by LASHP
Residencies, Awards, and Fellowships
2025 Visiting Artist, Pitzer College (Ceramics)
2023 / 25 Artist in Residence, City of Santa Monica Public Works Division (Water + Waste [Resource, Recovery, and Recycling])
2024 City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (C.O.L.A. IMAP), City of Los Angeles
2022 Future Art Award, Mozaik Philanthropy
2022 Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2021 The Wilhelm Foundation, for Contemporary Art League
2021 / 23 Pasadena Art Alliance, for Procession (2021) and Brackish Water Los Angeles (2023)
2020 /24 Getty Foundations, Brackish Water Los Angeles (Part of PST ART: Art and Science Collide)
2020 National Endowment for the Arts, for Procession (2023)
2020 Octavia E. Butler Estate, for PPE Emergency Response
2019 / 20 Cultural Trailblazer, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
2018 /21 The Durfee Foundation, for AIR Projects at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2018 /19 Visiting Artist, Occidental College, Los Angeles
2018 The Mellon Foundation, for Compass Rose at Oxy Arts
2018 Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
2012 Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Statue of Liberty National Monument & Ellis Island with New Jersey City University, New York City
Selected Museums and Public Collections
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Los Angeles
Hamilton Press, Los Angeles
Fidelity Investments, Houston
Ellis Island Museum, New York
Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Springs CA
London Chamber of Commerce, City of London
International Art Consultants, London
The Media Centre, London
Private collections internationally
Organizational Work
2025 La Ayuda Network, Co-Founder
Artist-led mutual aid network developed in response to the LA Fires. Motto is “We keep each other safe”. Raised $60,000+ for underserved families in Altadena.
2022 Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program, Founding Co-Director
Groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, which brought together more than 70 exhibiting institutions throughout Southern California. Supported by The Getty Foundation.
2022 Artists Commit, Organizing Member
Artist-led initiative to raise climate-consciousness.
2022 5 Million Strong, Organizing Member
Initiative to engage artists in the democratic process.
2020 / 23 Contemporary Art League, Co-Founder
Trade cooperative supporting Los Angeles County artworkers with quality of life support services including access to health insurance services
2020 / 21 PPE Emergency Response, Founding Director, Multi-institutional artist-driven effort resulting in the donation of 125,000 + face shields to Los Angeles County hospital workers while employing 200+ youth during the pandemic.
2017 / 21 AIR Projects, Founding Director, Stipended creative program for research-based climate-focussed artists
Published Writings
2026 Brackish Water Los Angeles catalog (forthcoming)
2023 American Cities Made and Remembered, UCLA Planning Journal Volume 26: Just Futures
2023 The Maps with X-Ray Eyes: The Sanborn Collection, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Volume 85
Selected Explanatory Film
Brackish Water Los Angeles, Presentation documentation. Run time: 14m19s. Co-presented by Fulcrum Arts and Leonardo/ISAST as a part of Leonardo’s LASER Talks series and the 2022 Fulcrum Festival: Deep Ocean/Deep Space.
Networks of Power, Video interview. Run time 7m28s. Produced by Art In Residence.
LAX Art at Home, Video interview. Run time: 3m08s. Produced by LAX Airport.
Public Speaking
2026 Echology: Perspectives in Eco-Logic, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2025 Roots, Recovery & Regeneration: State of the Arts Summit, Arts for LA, (Japanese American Cultural & Community Center), Los Angeles
2025 Circular Museum: Converging Practices — Museums in Climate Solidarity, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
2024 Residencies in Dialogue, The MAK Center, Los Angeles
2022 Art for Earth’s Sake: The Art World Meets the Crisis, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles
2022 Beyond All Measure: The Sea, the Sky, the Horizon of Our Transitional Present, Fulcrum Arts, Los Angeles
2020 What’s in a Landscape: The Changing Face of Monuments, Art in Residence in collaboration with Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
2020 Systems in Concrete: Cars, Trains and the Relocation of Chinatown, Los Angeles Public Library
2020 Possible Futures: Developing Plural Practices, ICALA, Los Angeles
2020 Amplifying the Green New Deal, YEA! (Young Entertainment Activists), Climate Summit, Los Angeles
2020 Art, Architecture and Activism, American Institute of Architects (AIA| LA) 2°C Climate Symposium, Los Angeles
2019 Build Your Own Systems, Warner Bros Studios, Los Angeles
2019 LA as Lab, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles
2018 Cultures of Art & Tech, Creative Industries Colloquium, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Los Angeles
2018 On Water, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
2018 Archaeology of the Present: Artists Addressing Climate Change. Moderated by Megan Steinman. Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICALA), Los Angeles
2018 Art in the Open, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2018 Artist Talk. The Narrows. Klowden Mann, Los Angeles
2017 On Going Home: Art, immigration and tertiary culture. Featuring Tanya Aguiñiga, Carmen Argote, Shagha Ariannia, Regina Mamou, Alexis Zoto. Charlie James Gallery
2017 Origins / Promotorx Talk, Los Angeles State Historic Park
2016 Artist Talk. The Letting Go, Klowden Mann
Guest Lectures 2016
CalArts, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Northridge, Occidental College, UC Santa Barbara
Curatorial
2024 Brackish Water Los Angeles (Co-Directed with Aandrea Stang), California State University Dominguez Hills
Part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide
2024 Conduit, Ontario Museum of History and Art, Ontario, California
2022 Confluence, Track 16, Los Angeles
2021 Latitude, BioScienceLA, Los Angeles
2021 Song of the Cicada, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
2021 Castle Garden, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles
2018 Cycles, Sony Pictures Lot, Los Angeles
2018 La Reina de los Ángeles, Sturt Haaga Gallery (Descanso Gardens), Los Angeles
2018 Defining Line, Along the Los Angeles River, (Co-curated with Nancy Baker Cahill for 4th Wall)
2017 On Going Home, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
1998 - 2001 Curator, The Spitz Gallery, London, UK
Selected Press
2026 ARTnews, Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions, Andy Battaglia, March 10
2026 Getty Foundation, Getty, LACMA, MOCA, Hammer Museum, and Hauser & Wirth Announce Collective Commitment to Climate Action, Cole Calhoun, March 9
2025 Getty Foundation, PST ART Climate Impact Program Report, November 18
2025 PBS SoCal, Art and Science Collide, Directed by Jessica Kingdon, October
2024 Artillery, Heavy Water: Rethinking the LA River for Future Generations, Renée Reizman, September 10
2024 Public Domain Review, From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Tobiah Black, Jun 12
2024 Art Newspaper, Giving Los Angeles back its lungs, Angella d’Avignon, Feb 26
2023 Artillery, Climate Conscious, Christopher Michno, Sept 5
2022 Los Angeles Times, "As Drought Deepens, Nine L.A. Artists Think about Water”, Christopher Knight, August 22
2022 Los Angeles Times, "L.A. artists take on drought crisis in new show. One solution? Embrace impermanence", Deborah Vankin, August 19
2022 Mozaik Philanthropy, EcoSystem X, "Hope and Beauty on the Edge of Collapse: The Artist as Care-Giver and Composter in Times of Ecological Uncertainty", Elisabeth Buchet-Deák, July
2021 PBS SoCal, "Climate Change-Focused Artist Residency Maps Out a New Future in the Pandemic", Carol Cheh, May
2018 "Concrete is Fluid", Podcast interview, Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio, July
2018 Los Angeles Times, "How virtual art appearing along the L.A. River tackles gentrification, immigration and environmental issues", Anna Furman, November
2018 Los Angeles Magazine, "Artists Using Augmented Reality… in Powerful Places", Brittany Martin, August
2018 Art and Cake, "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Shana Nys Dambrot, February
2018 Riot Material, "On Immigration, Liminality, and Ellis Island: Debra Scacco’s The Narrows", Ellen C Caldwell, January
2018 Los Angeles Review of Books, Featured Artist, January
2018 Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), "Debra Scacco at Klowden Mann", Aaron Horst, January
2018 "What Artists Listen To", Podcast interview, Pia Pack, August
2017 Feminist Crush, Podcast interview, Kitty Lindsay, March
2016 Kchung, Performance Now, Hosted by Carol Cheh & John Tain, December
2016 New American Paintings, "Light, Letting Go and the LA River", Ellen C, Caldwell, September
2016 Insert Blanc Press, "Classical Music For Artists", David Richards, Geoff Tuck, January
2015 Instagram interview feature, "Explorations of Light and Layers", Andrew Owen, May
2014 Huffington Post, "44 Stunning Art Studios That Will Inspire You To Get Back To Work", Priscilla Frank, August
2013 Huffington Post, "The Space Between", Elizabeth Sobieski, November
2013 Manor House Quarterly, "Dark Art", James Metze, November
2012 Art in America, Feature on Art Platform Los Angeles, Paul Soto, October
2012 White Hot Magazine, Birds of Passage review, Megan Frances, July
2012 Beautiful Decay, "Debra Scacco unlocks the 3 keys of greatness at Marine Contemporary", Daniel Rolnik, June 12
2012 Los Angeles Times, "Debra Scacco maps the psyche at Marine Contemporary", Leah Ollman, May 25